The New Republic

This season of NBC’s “Parks and Recreation,” the first season to film in D.C., has been a parade of political cameos. Olympia Snowe and Barbara Boxer chatted with an awestruck Leslie Knope at a Hay-Adams cocktail party. Then John McCain appeared on the scene, soothing Leslie as she sulked outside a coat closet. And in the most recent episode, Leslie met Joe Biden, her long-time political celebrity crush. “My name just came out of your mouth,” she stammered upon their introduction. For Amy Poehler's Knope—the town’s golden retriever of a protagonist, a small-town city councilwoman whose relentless optimism about government gives “Parks and Rec” its huge, buoyant heart—all these small encounters have be